Interplanetary communications are provided for various spacecraft being sent, for example to Mars. Communications for the Mars Exploration Rover Mission are discussed, for example, in the following Web publications by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology: (1) “Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Spacecraft: Surface Operations: Rover, The rover's antennas,” marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft_rover_antennas.html; and (2) “Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Communications With Earth: How the rovers can communicate through Mars-orbiting spacecraft,” marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/comm._orbiters.html. The disclosures of both of these publications are hereby incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.
In the on-going Mars Rover mission, a rover on the surface of Mars can communicate either directly with Earth or through a Mars-orbiting spacecraft. More particularly, a rover on the surface of Mars can transmit communications directly to one or more Deep Space Network antennas on Earth. A rover on Mars can also uplink information to a spacecraft orbiting Mars, and the information can then be passed from the spacecraft orbiting Mars to Earth. The spacecraft orbiting Mars can also send information to the rover on Mars.
Potential benefits of using an orbiting spacecraft may include: (1) that the orbiting spacecraft is closer to the rover than the Deep Space Network antennas on Earth; and (2) that the spacecraft orbiting Mars has the Earth in view for a longer and/or a more frequently occurring time period than the rover on the surface of Mars. Moreover, the rover may not have to use as much energy to send a communication to a spacecraft orbiting Mars as may be required to send a communication to an antenna on earth.
Improved communications systems and methods, however, may be desired to accommodate increasing communications to and from extraterrestrial bodies such as the Moon and/or Mars as more missions are sent to extraterrestrial bodies. More particularly, communications systems and methods may be desired that can accommodate increased communications between radioterminals on an extraterrestrial body and increased communications between radioterminals on the extraterrestrial body and a satellite orbiting a celestial body and/or transceivers on earth.